Project Details

This research program explores the role of housing and residential location in shaping health and wellbeing in Australia. This study has a particular focus on housing affordability, tenure and their measureable effects on individual health and wellbeing. It is widely acknowledged that there are strong associations between economic factors and inequalities in health status or disease states. However, most of these associations are correlations and do not provide information about the causal relationships between economic factors and health.

Housing is a key driver of ecomomic circumstances given it is a primary expenditure for most people and is a source of wealth and intergenerational transfer of assests. We test and examine causal aspects of the important relationship beween housing and mental health.

This body of research utlises longitudinal data to describe how housing affordability, tenure, housing condition and mobility impact on changes in mental health over time contributing to one of the defining debates of our time – what to do about the housing affordability ‘crisis’.